Order Routing Policy

The Canadian regulators require members to ensure ‘Best Execution’ for client orders. Best execution states that Industrial Alliance Securities Inc. (‘IAS’) must ensure that the best available price and most favorable execution are obtained for client orders. To ensure that this is done, IAS uses ‘smart order routing technologies’ to ensure that IAS meets the best execution requirements of the regulators.

IAS Order Routing

IAS is a member of all visible marketplaces in Canada. IAS is required to ensure that all orders are executed at the best available price on all visible Canadian markets. This is achieved by ensuring that all orders are routed via a Best Market Router (‘BMR’) which is subject to the IAS Best Execution policies and procedures.

IAS uses a BMR that employs a SWAY algorithm. The “SWAY” strategy sprays orders out to markets at the top price level simultaneously; updating pricing fills are returned and re-sprayed if required. The benefits of this strategy are fast execution & booking and the discovery of hidden liquidity on some markets.

IAS’s hours of operation for trading publicly listed Canadian securities is between 9:30am EST and 4:00 pm EST, Monday through Friday, except on statutory Canadian holidays. After-hours and pre-market facilities are available on a limited basis only. Clients should contact their IAs/PMs for further information on off-hour trading.

Handling of Client Orders

Orders received before 9:30am – these orders will be entered to the pre-opening of the marketplace unless otherwise specified by the client

Orders received after 4:00pm – these orders will be entered the next business day unless otherwise specified by the client

Order treatment and routing – all client orders are valid from 9:30am until 4:00 pm unless otherwise specified by the client. All unfilled orders will expire after the market close on the day that they are entered unless otherwise specified by the client. However, some day orders may be filled in the after-hours market until 5:00 pm on the day they were entered (before 4:00 pm)

For special term orders, please contact your IA/PM to review.

Order Routing Priority:

All client orders are routed through our BMR. When our Best Order Execution has been met, IAS may route client orders based on market execution costs to ensure the most economic execution of client orders.

Self Help

IAS’s best execution and best price policies and procedures rely on the third party trading systems, routing systems and the data and matching engines of the market places. In the ordinary course of business all third parties and their systems they provide are subject to failures of various kinds. When these failures occur, IAS’s policies are exposed to compromise and is immediately reported to Compliance.

When notified of a technical or systemic problem, IAS trading desk will immediately verify that the systemic problem is not internal to IAS. If another market participant is isolated as the source of a potential problem, the compliance department will take steps to ascertain if best execution is compromised. If best execution is compromised, the compliance department will inform the regulators and take necessary steps to declare self-help. If the participant is a market place, steps will be taken to exclude the market place from routing tables.

Disclosure of Marketplace

An order executed on one or more marketplaces may be reported to the client with the following disclosure that may read "Traded on one or more markets, may be an average price; details available upon request". This disclosure will be made on the client’s trade confirmation.

Should the client receive such a trade confirmation, they may contact their IA/PM to secure full details of the trade executed.

Industrial Alliance Securities Inc., a partner you can trust for your investments.